VMware releases View 4.5

I’m on a VDI kick these days and have been trolling the VMworld Solutions Exchange (aka vendor floor) for cool new stuff to help me feed the habit. However, even with all the great VDI-focused product on the show floor, nothing holds a candle to VMware’s recent announcement of VMware View 4.5. Sure, not everyone uses VMware for desktop virtualization but for those that do, View 4.5 brings a lot to the table.

  • Windows 7 support. View 4.5 along with ThinApp 4.6 fully support Windows 7. To ease the transition to Windows 7, ThinApp 4.6 supports virtualizing IE6 which is still pretty widely used.
  • A View client for Mac OS X. As Apple’s success continues to grow, VMware is responding by providing a View client for Mac OS X-based endpoints.
  • Support for offline VDI. One of the major drivers in VDI is the ability to deploy a contained set of images across the organization and to simplify management of the endpoint computing resources. Laptops mess this up as they need to be managed in more traditional ways. With View 4.5, VMware is introducing View Client with Local Mode which allows a View session to be checked out and run locally even without network connectivity.
    • From VMware: “The industry’s first integrated offline and server hosted solution for desktop virtualization. End-user can check their virtual desktop out of the datacenter and work without a connection to the network efficiently and securely. Furthermore, the checked out virtual desktop will run on all existing and new PCs unlike other solutions. Additionally the checked out virtual machine is fully encrypted and has policies associated with it. This will enable organizations rapidly deploy desktop virtualization for BYOPC or EOIT (Employee Owned IT) use cases.”
  • Simplified application delivery. ThinApp-provisioned applications are centrally managed in the View Manager console.
  • Scalable to 10,000 virtual desktops per pod.
  • Integrates with standard Microsoft management tools. View 4.5 integrates with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and PowerShell.

What are your thoughts on View 4.5? There is an almost ware between VMware and Citrix for the virtual desktop market. Does View 4.5 help VMware fight this battle? Does Citrix have a desktop killer app that makes it pointless for organizations to consider View?

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